Chapter 18

Jared returned them to the castle in a dizzying flash of teleporting. When they landed in the same courtyard with the archery target, she gasped at a sudden, sharp pain.

Harper glanced down at her side. Crimson wetness. The slick, coppery scent of blood.

Her blood.

The demon's tentacles had gotten to her after all.

Grimacing, she touched her shredded shirt. Her fingers came away stained red. Now in human form, Jared swore in a low voice.

"I'm sorry. I should have spirited you away sooner." Kneeling, he ripped apart her shirt, exposing the wound seeping blood.

"Where were you? Taking a break? You left me alone!"

"Recon." He grimaced as he gently touched her torn flesh. "When there's a couple of demons, there's certain to be more, many more. I had to dematerialize to where they emerged to see if there was a portal."

"And?" She winced at the burning pain.

"Not one I could see, which is bad news. It means you're the magnet."

"I'm a demon magnet. Terrific. Why couldn't I just be like other sexy women and attract weird guys instead of tentacle demons who want to kill?"

He glanced up with a slight smile. Then his face went serious as he examined her injury.

Harper sucked down a breath. The burning pain intensified. Jared touched the wound. As she was about to make a feeble joke about antiseptic and maybe she'd need stitches, something happened.

Gold beams of pure energy poured from Jared's hand, caressing her ragged, torn flesh. The energy pulsed as it covered her wound. The pain vanished at the same time the energy faded from Jared's fingers.

Stunned, she glanced at her side. Instead of a gaping, ugly wound, a pink scar indicated the skin had knit together.

"You healed me." Harper glanced down at him in wonder.

Jared blinked as he held up his right hand. "I can't believe it. It seems impossible."

"It is possible, because I was bleeding and now the wound is gone."

"I've never been able to do that. My powers do not heal."

But there was no denying his touch had performed this magick. It made her speculate.

Maybe there was another reason why Jared came into her life besides tutoring her in magick lessons.

Could it be she was here to help him as much as she needed his aid?

As he started to his feet, he suddenly staggered backward and nearly fell. Jared put a hand to his head. "Whoa. Dizzy spell."

Hooking an arm around his waist, she helped him stand upright. His body, which always had been warm, now felt unusually cold.

"Hold onto me," she urged.

He looked pale again, and shaken. Harper guided him over to a nearby chair. Jared plopped down upon it as if exhausted.

"I don't know why I could do this. But damn, I feel drained of all energy. My legs and arms are weak…can't even stand on my own."

It was her turn to kneel down by him. Harper gathered his trembling hands in her own. "Take a minute. Take several."

A bleak look came over him. "I don't understand what the hell is happening to me."

"I don't either. All I know is you helped me and took away my pain. I wish… I wish I could take away yours."

Blue coldfire flared on her fingertips. Closing her eyes, Harper went with her heart and wished she could infuse him with magick. Power, energizing him.

His breath hitched. Harper opened her eyes. Blue coldfire encased his hands. Suddenly Jared's hands flamed red with his own powers. Blue coldfire licked at the flickering red fire on his hands. It merged with his magick, feeding it like a stream flowing into a river.

Feeding him life.

Marveling, she clutched his hands tighter, until the red glow of his magick equaled the strength of her own. Jared pulled back his magick and hers vanished as well.

He turned his hands around, his dark gaze wide as he stared at the backs, the faint dusting of black hair. "Whoa."

"What's happening to me?" She turned her own palms over. "To us?"

"I don't know. Are you okay?"

He had expended his own magick to heal her, and it had drained her. Harper's heart beat faster as she stroked a finger across the back of his hand. Try as he might, Jared wasn't as indifferent or as bad as he declared.

"I'm fine," she said softly. "More than fine. I feel like everything is changing, but for the first time, I'm not as terrified as I should be. My world has transformed, and there's no going back, but it's strange. I'm not scared, not like I was back in the meadow. Because you're here, with me. I feel stronger when you're around."

To her dismay, he pulled his hands away and his expression shuttered. "Don't rely on me, Harper. You need to stand on your own against the evil that wants to harm you. Your powers are your only defense."

Somehow she doubted it. She, the pragmatic scientist who relied on logic and facts, had changed her mind. Harper held up her hands, watched the glow of power she put forth.

"This is power, but it has no depth. It's like a machine. It does only what I direct it to do. I can stand alone, but I'm not much use by myself, no matter how strong my magick. Evil has many other weapons at its disposal. I think, in the end, the only real defense and weapon we have against evil and darkness, is love."

"It conquers all." He rolled his eyes.

Irritated with his sarcasm, she glared at him. "Stop being so snarky. Can't you for once be serious? There is something between us, Jared. I feel it and you feel it as well."

His expression momentarily became downcast, and he reminded her of a lost little boy who couldn't find his way back home.

Encouraged, she pressed on. "If there wasn't something, how can you heal me? There's a connection between us, and we can't deny it. You know I'm speaking the truth."

Something flared to life in his dark, enigmatic gaze. Hope? It chased away the cynicism. Then he glanced at the encroaching darkness.

"I know this. It's late and you need to eat, replenish your strength. Let's see what Jallu left for us in the kitchen."

As they started toward the lower levels of the castle, Harper couldn't help her small sigh of disappointment. Her world had flipped upside down and she'd struggled to adapt. Jared had been a steady beacon pulsing in the absurd shock of leaving behind her former life.

Though he looked sad at the idea of her leaving, he seemed to take it as an inevitability.

What would happen when he left her, too? Would he feel the pinch of grief, the regret for what might have been?

For if she couldn't convince him to pursue this undeniable link between them, Harper knew she'd become lost as well.